


Death by Unicorn

by tetsunohana



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tetsunohana/pseuds/tetsunohana
Summary: Baekhyun doesn't like doing anything, or anyone, more than once. That changes when Yixing comes back into his life, reminding him of how little he's changed in these past four years.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 7
Kudos: 61





	Death by Unicorn

“Fuck, that feels so good!” the girl panted as Baekhyun rammed into her from behind. “More, right there!”

Baekhyun wrinkled his nose. He couldn’t take much more of this. Thankfully, he was close to coming, and he emptied into the condom with a groan, quickly reaching between her legs and thumbing her clit until he could feel her stilling, her cries subsiding to a low moan and her walls spasming around his flaccid length.

He pulled out and pulled the condom off, tucking himself back into his pants. She had turned over onto her back and was smiling at him through her eyelashes.

“We should do this again sometime,” she said coyly, her shorts still wrapped around her ankles.

Baekhyun bent down and helped her dress herself again, grabbing a paper towel to clean them both off a bit.

“You were great, sweetheart,” he drawled. “But I don’t really do that.”

He dropped her off next to her identical friend before heading back to the dressing room for a much needed smoke. He was at least that much of a gentleman.

“You reek,” Kyungsoo deadpanned as Baekhyun stepped into the dressing room.

“I love you too,” Baekhyun said, heading towards his bag to pull out a pre-rolled joint. “Wanna come outside for a smoke?”

“No thanks,” Kyungsoo said. He was reading something, glasses perched low on his nose.

“Suit yourself,” Baekhyun said, sticking his lighter into his back pocket and heading towards the door.

“You’re coming to the after party, right?” Kyungsoo asked, looking up from his book briefly.

Baekhyun grunted an affirmation and waved as the door swung shut behind him.

…

The after party was stuffy. It was their last stop on this tour, and the people that were actually responsible for their shows were intermingling with media representatives and executives from the label. Baekhyun wasn’t sure if he’d be awake for the after after party.

“Look alive,” Chanyeol muttered at him under his breath as he caught Baekhyun nodding off.

Baekhyun frowned and downed the rest of his martini in one go before walking towards the bar for another drink. As he was waiting for his beer (he took the rule _Don’t mix alcohols_ as a personal challenge), he leaned against the counter and looked out at the room.

Seven years into this and he still wasn’t used to rubbing shoulders with this kind of crowd, all smooth pretension and well-groomed flattery. Baekhyun hadn’t exactly grown up poor, but his parents were immigrants -- they had saved every free plastic bag from the grocery store and every leftover napkin from the takeout bag and every dusty penny hiding in the corner of the sandbox at the park, re-appropriated everything in the name of saving money. And to this day Baekhyun felt like an imposter next to the people that had grown up going to the evening show instead of the matinee.

The bartender slid him his beer and he sipped it slowly, feeling the tension start to drain out of his shoulders.

“You look deep in thought,” Jongdae commented as he came up to the bar next to Baekhyun and ordered a gin and tonic.

Baekhyun shrugged. “Can’t let my cool, aloof image get destroyed.”

Someone was entering the room, someone that made Baekhyun’s breath catch in his throat. The man was stomach roiling handsome, with dark brown hair in a stylish undercut, clear dark eyes, and a muscled frame that was tantalizingly apparent under his tailored suit. He smirked, exposing a dimple, and Baekhyun’s mouth watered.

“Who the fuck is that?” he asked Jongdae, not willing to take his eyes off of the man as his pink lips curled around what Baekhyun was sure were the most eloquent words ever to be spoken.

Jongdae looked up disinterestedly and laughed. “That’s fucking Zhang Yixing, you dumbass.”

“You’re shitting me,” Baekhyun said, finally tearing his eyes away to check Jongdae’s expression. It was normal. “Sweet, soft Yixing?”

Jongdae nodded. “It’s been what, four years?”

“How do you change that much in four years?” Baekhyun asked, half to himself.

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were interested,” Jongdae said slyly. “But of course Byun Baekhyun never comes in the same place twice, so I know you’re not interested.”

Baekhyun sighed. “I’m intrigued, is all. I haven’t heard anything about him since he finished that EP.”

“Well, since you’re too good to listen to the rumors, I’ll fill you in. I hear he’s next in line for CEO. The old man’s set everything up to have Yixing succeed.”

“Guess that means I’ll be seeing him around,” Baekhyun said, and tossed back the rest of his beer.

“You’re not going to go up to him, are you?” Jongdae asked.

Baekhyun smirked. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were worried.” Seeing Jongdae’s unimpressed face, he went on, “But don’t worry. I’ll just say hi when he comes over here.”

Jongdae snorted and picked up his drink from the counter. “Where are you headed now that the tour’s over, anyway? Off to give our publicist another heart attack?”

Baekhyun was unaffected. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to surf.”

Jongdae laughed, loud and shrill. “You’d be awful at it. It requires practice, you know.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun sighed, and fixed his hair. “He’s coming over now.”

Baekhyun busied himself with his phone as he felt Yixing slide up to the bar next to him. He smelled expensive, ordering his whiskey.

“Long time no see.” Out of the corner of his eye, Baekhyun saw Jongdae roll his eyes and leave.

Yixing turned and smiled when his eyes met Baekhyun’s. Now that they were closer, Baekhyun could see that his eyes still crinkled at the corners when he smiled.

“Indeed,” he replied, and his voice was just as sweet as Baekhyun remembered. “How have you been, Baekhyun?”

“Still just a poet that can play the guitar,” Baekhyun said. “I write the words, and Chanyeol finds the music.”

“I’m a little embarrassed,” Yixing admitted as he took a sip of his whiskey. “I haven’t listened to your latest album. I’ve been a bit out of touch with the industry.”

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t seem that way to me. Jongdae told me you’re next in line to be CEO.”

Yixing shrugged. “Rumors travel fast, I guess.”

“But is it really just a rumor?” Baekhyun slid a little bit closer on the counter.

“I don’t believe I’m at privilege to say,” Yixing replied, hiding what Baekhyun swore was a smile behind his glass.

Baekhyun watched him take a long swallow of his drink, looking out into the room. Fuck, he looked good.

“So what have _you_ been up to?” Baekhyun prompted.

Yixing’s gaze drifted around the room. “I’ve been working on Joonmyun’s new group. They’re set to release a debut album next month. Haven’t had much time to myself.”

Baekhyun paused. “You still surf?”

Yixing laughed and shook his head. “Does it look like I do?”

Baekhyun had to admit that perhaps his desire to see Yixing with salt in his hair, sun on his skin, had trumped the conclusions of his rational mind. “Maybe not.”

“Why do you bring up surfing?” Yixing asked, like he knew exactly why.

Baekhyun tried to look nonchalant. “I’m heading to Malibu after this. Come with. You know, just for old times’ sake.”

Yixing smiled and nodded as he made eye contact with someone else across the room. “I’ll let you know.”

  
  
  


_Now I know I'm not a saint,_

_I been a sinner all my life_

“In One Ear” - Cage the Elephant

  
  
  


“That was a great one, you guys! Let’s take a five minute break before the next one.”

Baekhyun lifted the strap over his head and set the guitar back down on its stand. His fingertips were still tingling when he grabbed the door knob and stepped into the control room.

The producer was young, but talented. Baekhyun had been skeptical when Minseok suggested him for their new album, the one that would carve out their places as alt rock gods, but after listening to Yixing’s previous work, he was completely on board. It didn’t hurt that Yixing was easy on the eyes, either, with twinkling eyes and long black hair that he tied in a ponytail to keep from falling into his face. He had a poor sense of fashion, much to Baekhyun’s dismay. That body deserved to be showcased much better than in the oversized t-shirts and distressed jeans that Yixing wore almost as a uniform.

“Can I get you anything from the kitchen?” Baekhyun offered as he grabbed his wallet from the table.

It seemed to take a moment for Yixing to register that someone was talking to him. “I’m all set, thanks!”

He hadn’t looked up from his work, and as he scribbled something in his notebook he tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear. He looked so soft, with his worn-in clothes and his unstyled hair. Baekhyun couldn’t resist.

“Do you ever take a break?” he asked, sidling over to look at Yixing’s notebook. He spotted a neat line of music notes, surrounded by a crowd of what looked like lyrics, some of them crossed out and rewritten so many times that the paper was dented.

“Why would I take a break from something I love?” Yixing asked, finishing what he was writing with a period that landed two inches off target. He set his pen down and leaned back in his chair to look up at Baekhyun through his hair.

“To take a shit, for instance,” Baekhyun responded playfully.

Yixing rolled his eyes, but a dimple appeared on his right cheek. “You write the songs, right?”

Baekhyun sucked on his lower lip. “With Chanyeol. He writes the music, I find the words.”

“You play piano?”

“Sure, don’t we all?” Baekhyun tossed his wallet back on the table and took a seat on the couch.

“No, do you _really_ play?” Yixing pressed.

Baekhyun laughed. “Define _really_.”

“How about you just play me something?” Yixing nodded at the piano. When Baekhyun didn’t move, he nodded at it again, this time a low whine coming from the back of his throat.

Baekhyun reluctantly got up from the couch and sat on the piano bench. His fingers hovered over the smooth keys, and he resisted his old nervous habit of cracking his knuckles.

He had learned the classics, like all good Asian kids. To his mother’s dismay, his love for music was a bit too deep, and a bit too raw. He had half-assed all his applications to HYPMS and been summarily rejected. Then he had dropped out of Juilliard to start Death by Unicorn. At least she had his older brother, who had settled on the acceptable profession of lawyer. She’d always liked him a bit more, anyway.

He picked a familiar recital piece, Chopin’s Opus 66, Fantaisie-Impromptu. At one point of his life, he probably could’ve played this in his sleep. As it was, his fingers moved over the keys with familiarity, and of its own accord his body began to sway in time with the music.

As he approached the climax of the piece, he wondered if perhaps this one was not the best choice for a casual session in the recording studio. A finger slipped as he pondered this, but he quickly put the thought out of his mind and recovered, a grin spreading over his face as he pounded on the keys like they owed him money. He could even feel himself breaking into a slight sweat.

He closed his eyes as he struck the final chords, and Yixing broke out into light applause when he lifted his hands from the keys. He whistled as Baekhyun sat back down on the couch and tried to stop the thundering in his chest.

“So you’re one of the real ones,” he said admiringly, and Baekhyun laughed to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling in the room.

“I learned that piece a long time ago,” he said. After a pause, he continued, “But I’ll play something else for you tomorrow if you want.”

  
  
  


_I like where I'm at on my back_

_Floating down in my own riptide_

_The water is fine_

“Riptide” - Sick Puppies

  
  
  


Baekhyun leafed through his notebook. Nothing in particular caught his eye. All of the lyrics sounded too sad, or too angry, or too juvenile. He didn’t recall sounding like such a brat before. He tossed the notebook back onto the coffee table and looked out into the Malibu sunshine.

Surfing was a bust, as he had learned quickly. It was too cold and too physically demanding, and instead of practicing he had spent all his time letting a gaggle of fangirls coo over him, until the gaggle had reached critical mass and he fled back to his car.

He flipped over onto his back and scrolled through the notifications on his phone. Minseok was having fun on his European honeymoon, long postponed. Chanyeol was camping somewhere in the Canadian Rockies, with his fratty friends. Jongdae was working on some side projects; his love for ballads baffled Baekhyun. Kyungsoo had, as per usual, disappeared off the face of the earth once the band was no longer working on stuff together. He was probably doing something avant-garde like looking at gray canvases in a brightly colored room, sipping wine made from heirloom grapes.

His finger gravitated towards the Instagram icon and he opened it up, going to his list of most recent searches. Yixing’s account was private, and he hadn’t accepted Baekhyun’s follow request yet. He squinted at the frustratingly cropped mirror selfie that was Yixing’s profile picture.

Then he realized what he was doing and flung his phone to the other side of the couch. He should’ve taken the goddamn hint at the after party. He shouldn’t have broken his own rule; he should’ve just forgotten about Yixing, filtered him out using the _People I’ve Already Slept With_ filter. But somehow that didn’t work on Yixing, and it was killing his ego slowly to realize that Yixing apparently didn’t want to bone his brains out like everyone else did.

He got up from the couch in a huff and grabbed his jacket. He needed to throw a party.

  
  
  


_Said, gimme a drink of water_

_I'm gonna sing around the collar_

_And I don't need a microphone_

“Icky Thump” - The White Stripes

  
  
  


“Thanks,” Baekhyun sniffled as he accepted the cup of water. It was always useful to have someone hold your hair out of the way when you were puking, especially now that he had the majestic streaked mullet that would become his signature.

“Are you okay?” The voice was concerned, and Baekhyun nodded on reflex. It was only after a few more sips of water that he recognized Yixing.

He laughed nervously. “This is awkward.”

Yixing flushed in the most adorable way.

Baekhyun backtracked. “Well, I suppose this isn’t all that awkward. All of my bandmates have done this for me before, and so has Minseok. Welcome to the family!”

Bafflingly, that did not seem to make Yixing feel better.

“Maybe we should go get some fresh air,” he suggested, extending a hand to help Baekhyun to his feet. He was stronger than he looked, or maybe his terrible choice of clothing just hid how strong he was too well.

Baekhyun didn’t really need help walking, but he let Yixing wrap an arm around his waist, and he leaned into Yixing’s shoulder. They made their way outside and settled into two lawn chairs. It was still pretty stuffy out, and the air still smelled of smoke from the latest chain of wildfires.

Baekhyun took a few more sips of water and felt more sober already.

“You know,” he began conversationally. “You really need to dress better.”

Yixing laughed. “So I’ve been told. But I just can’t seem to find the time to go shopping.”

“Shop online!” Baekhyun replied with a flourish of his wrist. “Order a bunch of sizes and send back the ones that don’t fit.”

Yixing shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”

Baekhyun was sober enough by then to realize that they were probably going to hook up. The prospect didn’t excite him as much as he thought it would.

“How long have you played piano?” Yixing asked after a pause.

“Since I was like seven,” Baekhyun replied. “Like in every good romance, I hated it at first. But then I got obsessed, and that was when I got good, and it grew and grew until it became my life. So of course that’s when the breakup happened, and now it’s just a sweet memory.”

Yixing squinted. “Are those lyrics?”

Baekhyun burst out laughing. “So you’ve done your research, I see.” He paused. “But it’s true. I didn’t write them thinking of piano, but they apply all the same.”

He looked up, his eyes watering slightly from the smoke, and tried to spot the stars through the smog and light pollution. His attempt at poetry failed.

“I never took you up on your offer,” Yixing said suddenly. “Play something for me again.”

“Come over sometime.” Baekhyun winked.

They didn’t hook up that night.

  
  
  


_And I thought I was a fool for no one_

_But oo baby I'm a fool for you_

“Supermassive Black Hole” - Muse

  
  
  


The party was a bust, as Baekhyun learned quickly. He only vaguely recognized most of the guests, and he found that, although everyone at the party obviously knew his name, he could only name about half of them. He nursed his vodka orange and comforted himself with the fact that he had lured Kyungsoo out of hiding. His bandmate had promised to show up, although it was quickly approaching that point in the night after which Baekhyun might not remember him showing up.

He went inside to hide from a girl he’d forgotten completely. Or perhaps they didn’t actually know each other and she was simply extraordinarily confident. He couldn’t tell these days. Hopefully the pool jousting tournament would distract her for long enough that Baekhyun could blame the alcohol for not remembering her.

He was debating whether or not to break out the emergency stash of Bagel Bites when he heard the front door slam open.

“This place is even shittier than I remembered,” called a voice from the entryway.

“Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun rushed over to engulf the other man in a hug, but Kyungsoo held up a bottle of liquor as a defense.

Baekhyun grabbed the bottle and went over to the dining room to put it in the liquor cabinet.

“I’m offended,” he said. “Do I really look like someone who would insult his friends by not having an open bar?”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “My mother raised me too well to not bring a gift to a house party.”

“Are you implying something about mine?” Baekhyun demanded.

Kyungsoo flashed a grin. “Mama Byun is a saint. But even a saint couldn’t hope to straighten out the devil.”

Baekhyun looked for somewhere to set down his drink so he could jump on Kyungsoo, but then someone else came through the front door.

“Yixing?” He hoped his face didn’t look as flabbergasted as he sounded.

Yixing smiled and Baekhyun’s stomach felt like a pit of molten lava.

“Took me a while to find a spot,” he explained. “We carpooled.”

“Why?” Baekhyun was really not doing a great job at conveying his refinement and eloquence.

“We were catching up at the office,” Kyungsoo explained.

Baekhyun triumphantly latched onto the implication. “Why wasn’t I invited?”

“I did invite you,” Kyungsoo replied serenely. “You said you had to buy -- and I quote -- magnificent floating steeds for your pool jousting tournament.”

Baekhyun frowned. When he read the text earlier that afternoon, he hadn’t thought about the fact that Yixing might have been there.

“What were you talking about, then?”

“I’ll probably be producing your next album,” Yixing said. Then he added with a cough, “It’ll be my last project before I move into the big office.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widened. “So it’s official? Congratulations! Welcome to your party!” He gestured grandly over the house.

Yixing laughed as they all began making their way to the poolside, Baekhyun wondering vaguely if this meant that he would be seeing Yixing a lot more from then on, and if any of those times would be while they were fucking.

They did hook up that night.

How it happened didn’t really make sense to Baekhyun either. Perhaps he was drunker than he thought. Kyungsoo had been captured by an old acquaintance and hadn’t been seen for the better part of an hour. Instead Baekhyun and Yixing lounged by the poolside sipping beers and spinning up some pseudo-intellectual fairy tales that neither of them believed but both found endlessly amusing.

Baekhyun scoffed at the suggestion that they had become too prideful to realize the limits of their own knowledge.

“Sure,” he said. “You’ll be all mystical and postmodern when it suits you to assert scientific non-facts that help your case, but when it comes down to it you’ll still go home in your internal combustion engine car and sleep safe knowing your credit card information is encrypted by devil machines that think in black and white.”

Yixing laughed. “That’s missing a key fact which is that we take for granted what nature has given us every day. Why are we so bold to assume that the atmosphere will be breathable tomorrow, that the earth will still be solid under our feet tomorrow? We treat empiricism as God, but we don’t even have a Bible for it, much less a Jesus. Yes, I’m a hypocrite, but at least I’ll own up to being one. And that hypocrisy is part of my mystical postmodern facade, thank you very much.”

Baekhyun crumpled up his beer can and tossed it at Yixing; he was tiring of this argument. The backyard was looking empty, only a few clusters of two or three people scattered over the lawn. A chill breeze ruffled Baekhyun’s hair and he thought about how he had taken Yixing’s long hair for granted. It made him look softer.

“Want to go inside?” he asked. “I have Bagel Bites.”

Yixing laughed and got to his feet, extending a hand to help Baekhyun up; the chair had an unfortunate geometry. “Let’s go.”

As Baekhyun wrestled with the precarious tower of food in his freezer, Yixing poked around the kitchen and paused at the fridge. Baekhyun watched him out of the corner of his eye as he arranged the Bagel Bites on a baking tray and stuck them in the toaster oven.

“You still have this?” Yixing laughed. He was holding up an old Polaroid of them, probably from some kind of group dinner or something.

Baekhyun flapped his hand dismissively and sat up on the kitchen island to face Yixing. “The movers were really thorough; I guess they just got it from my other fridge. From my old place, you know.”

Yixing turned his gaze away from the fridge and took a couple of steps forward.

“You haven’t really changed since then,” he murmured as he reached out and twirled a strand of Baekhyun’s hair around his finger. “Although this place is a hell of an upgrade.”

Baekhyun tapped a finger on Yixing’s nose. “You’re a hell of an upgrade.”

Yixing smirked in response, and Baekhyun ran a finger down the rest of Yixing’s face, eliciting a shiver as he went over the throat, and down to the bit of chest exposed by his wife beater.

He brought his eyes up to Yixing’s, curious what the other’s reaction would be, and was surprised when Yixing pulled him in for a messy kiss, his hand firm on the back on Baekhyun’s head. Baekhyun’s heart, traitorously, leaped in his chest as he kissed back, wrapping a leg around Yixing’s waist to pull him closer. (It also put his dick, rapidly gaining interest, in contact with a set of deliciously hard abs.)

The toaster oven dinged, but neither of them paid any attention; the kiss was so perfect, so familiar in a way that shouldn’t have been possible considering they’d only kissed once before. But there were differences too: Baekhyun tried to run his hands through Yixing’s hair and was disappointed when it was too short, Yixing made a noise of pleasure and surprise as he ran his tongue over Baekhyun’s new piercing.

By the time Yixing pulled away, Baekhyun was sure that they both looked like a mess.

“Are we sure this is what we want?” Yixing asked, breathless.

Baekhyun reached down and palmed Yixing through his jeans with a smirk. Yixing moaned and made an abortive movement to push Baekhyun away.

“Looks like it’s what you want,” Baekhyun noted smugly.

Yixing sighed and helped Baekhyun slide off the countertop. There was no struggling up the stairs, shedding articles of clothing as they went. Baekhyun felt playful, and went ahead of Yixing so he could enjoy the sight of Yixing chasing after him. Plus, he knew his ass looked great in these jeans, one size too small.

Baekhyun was thankful that his bed was clear of obstructions; the ottoman in the closet had been a great investment considering his habit of throwing all his clothes around his room when getting ready.

Yixing locked the door behind them and, in a few big steps, went right up to where Baekhyun was standing, and pushed him onto the bed.

That was different. Last time Yixing had been so gentle that Baekhyun was a bit offended at first.

This was very different. Yixing was biting his lip as he crawled on top of Baekhyun and boxed him in with his arms. His chest looked so hard. Baekhyun couldn’t help touching.

“What are you going to do to me?” he asked coyly as Yixing kissed down his neck, sucking enormous hickeys that made Baekhyun gasp out and pull Yixing closer.

Yixing pulled back with a smirk. “I’m going to ride you until you cry.”

Baekhyun laughed to hide the fact that he was extremely turned on. “Come and get me.”

The struggle to remove clothing commenced, and Baekhyun may or may not have interrupted the operation to drool over Yixing’s biceps and demand a makeout session that left them both panting and Baekhyun regretting his choice of pants.

“Why do you wear pants that are too small for you?” Yixing complained as he struggled to force one of the jeans’ legs over Baekhyun’s ankle.

“Shut up, you know I look good,” Baekhyun retorted.

By the time the pants were off they were both panting from the exertion and the making out. Baekhyun crawled over to the nightstand and grabbed out the condoms and lube before they got any more distracted. Yixing grabbed the lube and one of Baekhyun’s hands with it, pouring a generous amount onto his fingers. As he tossed the bottle to the side he leaned down and kissed Baekhyun messily, more tongue than Baekhyun remembered.

“Fuck,” he gasped when he felt Yixing guiding his fingers to his hole, and he grabbed a handful of ass with his free hand as he slowly worked a finger through the rim.

Yixing’s voice was high-pitched and breathy as he made his pleasure known, and Baekhyun wondered why he hadn’t been topping as much recently. He missed it.

He slipped a second finger inside and watched as Yixing fucked himself up and down on Baekhyun’s fingers, the muscles in his thighs flexing perfectly.

Yixing was so soft and wet on the inside, and Baekhyun curled his fingers to hear Yixing’s voice jump into a higher register. Baekhyun reached up to palm his chest, slick with sweat.

“I need you now,” Yixing groaned, and Baekhyun scrambled to find a condom.

No sooner had he gotten the condom on that Yixing was slapping his hand out of the way and guiding Baekhyun’s dick in between his legs. Baekhyun could see the slightest tremble in Yixing’s thighs, and the skin on Yixing’s hips turned red where Baekhyun was gripping them with both hands.

“That’s good,” Yixing said as he sat all the way down, and Baekhyun could feel his toes curling in pleasure as Yixing rolled his hips once or twice.

Baekhyun couldn’t help the little sounds of pleasure that came out of his mouth as Yixing began moving in earnest, throwing his head back and letting Baekhyun’s hands guide him back down as he bounced up and down. He could feel the bruising force of his hips on Yixing’s thighs and was glad that his bed was sturdy.

“Where have you been for four fucking years?” Baekhyun complained. He could feel himself drooling slightly onto the pillow as Yixing did something marvelous with his hips.

Yixing’s laugh was cut short by a moan. “Harder!”

With a nontrivial amount of effort, Baekhyun planted his feet on the bed and began driving up harder. Yixing shouted, and Baekhyun moved his hands down to spread Yixing’s ass cheeks apart. The room settled into the sounds of panting and skin slapping against skin, punctuated by the occasional moan or whine.

“Fuck,” Baekhyun swore when he felt himself slip out, and Yixing let out the most pitiful whine that Baekhyun wanted to laugh.

He took the opportunity to switch positions, pushing Yixing back against the headboard and pulling his legs up over his head. He bent down for a kiss as he slid inside.

“Are you close?”

Yixing moaned an affirmation and Baekhyun began fucking him open in earnest, pulling Yixing’s head in against his chest to prevent it from banging against the headboard. He could feel Yixing’s breath getting more ragged, his walls clenching around him.

Baekhyun came with a low groan, and Yixing finished onto his chest not long afterwards. Baekhyun pulled out and tossed the condom, pulling the covers over them both.

“You didn’t cry,” Yixing said, still out of breath.

“We still have all night,” Baekhyun responded as he latched onto one of Yixing’s arms and nuzzled his face into it. “I’m planning on it.”

  
  
  


_You can be cool, you can be shy_

_Say what you want, say what you like_

_‘Cause ooh, your body talks, your body talks_

“Body Talks” - The Struts

  
  
  


They went out for dinner after the last day of recording. Baekhyun sat sandwiched between Kyungsoo and Yixing and stole fries from both even though they had ordered some to share for the table. Kyungsoo eventually got tired of Baekhyun’s thieving and stomped on his foot, hard.

“Asshole!” he yelled loud enough to get a dirty look from the waitress. She was nice; he felt a little guilty.

“Here.” Yixing plopped some fries on Baekhyun’s plate.

He groaned. “I can’t now.”

He replaced the fries on Yixing’s plate and ignored Kyungsoo rolling his eyes ostentatiously.

“Grow up, Baekhyun,” he said, and Baekhyun just stuck his tongue out at him.

Yixing didn’t touch the fries on his plate for the rest of dinner; Baekhyun begrudgingly ate some before the waitress cleared the plates away.

When they were done eating, they took a group photo, Baekhyun’s arms wrapped around Chanyeol and a very displeased Kyungsoo. Baekhyun still has a copy of it lying around somewhere. Then while they were clearing out the restaurant Baekhyun found himself standing next to Yixing again. He felt strangely anxious at the thought that they wouldn’t have an excuse to see each other anymore.

“Add yourself,” he said, thrusting his phone into Yixing’s hands and surprising himself with how much he cared. “We should get together sometime.”

  
  
  


_It’s hard to think of anything that I haven't heard before_

_I hear these voices in my head_

_They could be mine but I'm not sure_

“Crawl Back In” - Dead by Sunrise

  
  
  


Baekhyun consoled himself with a twink he met at a bar a while back, and had been stringing along for a few months as a safety net. An emergency dick, as he liked to call it. He didn’t need to pre-allocate any emergency pussy because, well, he was a rock star.

If the other man was bothered by the still-fading hickeys on Baekhyun’s neck, he didn’t mention it. He also didn’t ask Baekhyun to stay the night. It almost made him regret that they would never meet again.

On the drive home Baekhyun listened to an old playlist from his high school days, and wondered why it didn’t sound nostalgic, just familiar, as if he’d only just listened to the songs yesterday. When he got into the house he poured himself a glass of water and drank it while staring at the Polaroid of Yixing, still long-haired and dopey-looking, and himself. Then he reluctantly got ready for bed, turning on the TV for some background noise.

As he scrolled mindlessly through notifications to help him fall asleep, he saw that Yixing had accepted his follow request.

  
  
  


_Fate somehow brings me hope inside my heart_

“Found and Lost” - Survive Said the Prophet

  
  
  


Wanting a smoking buddy quickly became Baekhyun’s go-to excuse for meeting up with Yixing. His bandmates didn’t like to smoke as much, especially not with him.

They sat smoking one day in Baekhyun’s apartment, which was slightly nicer, during a bit of a downturn in the band’s activities. The promotions for their new album had been going well, and it looked like they would add a few stops to their planned tour.

“How’d you guys meet?” Yixing asked, eyes glassy.

Baekhyun snorted. “You haven’t read the interviews? It’s become a bit of a myth by now.”

Yixing shrugged. “Wanted to hear it from the source.”

Baekhyun took another drag and was seized by an urge for pizza. He grabbed for the stack of menus on the coffee table and rifled through the pages for a pizza place. “Well, believe it or not, Kyungsoo was the ringleader. He and Chanyeol knew each other from high school. He was a year above me at Juilliard, even though I’m older. He skipped a year in elementary school and I took a gap year. Jongdae was the hardest to find. At first Kyungsoo thought I could sing, but my voice doesn’t really fit with our sound.”

Yixing raised an eyebrow. “How’d you end up finding Jongdae then?”

“I met Jongdae at a bar once.” Baekhyun coughed. “We hooked up a couple of times, so I knew he could scream.”

Yixing laughed; Baekhyun could see the way his ears had turned red at the tops. “I like the myth more.”

Baekhyun reached for his phone to punch in the pizza place’s number. “Yeah, busking together on the subway to make ends meet sounds a lot more romantic, but we were more likely to get kicked off the subway for being too noisy. We did that shit for publicity.”

Baekhyun watched Yixing blow smoke rings as he slurred out an order to the pizza place. By the time he hung up Yixing’s eyes were closed and there was the slightest smile on his lips.

“And the name?” Yixing asked.

Baekhyun blinked. “Death by Unicorn?”

Yixing nodded.

Baekhyun shrugged. “It sounded metal but not too metal, hipster but not too hipster, gay but not too gay. I think Chanyeol came up with it.”

Yixing made a surprised noise. “That’s unexpected.”

Baekhyun laughed, agreeing. “How did you get into the business anyway?” he asked.

“Minseok and I went to Berklee together,” Yixing responded, eyes still closed. “I’ve always known that I wanted to pursue music, and things kind of just worked out for me, I guess.”

  
  
  


_‘Cause we are the ones that want to play_

_Always want to go_

_But you never want to stay_

“Aerials” - System of a Down

  
  
  


Baekhyun passed the rest of the summer like he usually did: smoking, fucking, writing scraps of songs, and making the occasional poorly thought out social media post. He went through a revolving door of acquaintances and took a weekend trip to Vegas that blurred together into a single day in his memory. Only when he realized that he didn’t remember any of his smoking buddies, he felt too old for it all, and when he read back the lyrics he wrote the day after, he didn’t feel like the person who’d written them.

Kyungsoo dropped by occasionally, and when Baekhyun asked about Yixing in what he thought was a subtle way, Kyungsoo would give him the most annoying, knowing smile. Baekhyun tolerated it because Kyungsoo did know a lot about what Yixing was up to. They met each other every so often at the office, and Baekhyun figured they were going to start working on the next album soon. They already had most of the songs figured out from while they were on tour, when they’d taken a break between the European and Asian legs of the tour to really iron out some of the details.

He was strangely looking forward to it; as always, he forgot how much of his much-needed social interaction came from his bandmates.

One day he stopped by the studio on a whim; he was in the area, or as much in the area as you could be in LA. Perhaps he’d been hoping to get his inspiration back from the place where he used to feel so much of it. But before he could enter the building, he ran into Yixing on his way out.

“I’m headed to grab some drinks,” Yixing said, and when he reached up to fix his hair his shirt slid up to reveal the smallest sliver of skin. “Want to come with?”

Baekhyun shrugged in a way that he hoped came across as nonchalant. “Sure.”

He didn’t recognize any of the people they met up with. Apparently they were part of that period of Yixing’s life when Baekhyun had all but forgotten about him.

The bar was good though. Baekhyun could zone out of the conversation and the noise of someone else’s conversation would fill the void where he had dropped out of. He ordered the same cocktail twice and took pictures with two different fans while Yixing’s friends laughed. It was all very LA.

By the time Yixing’s friends had to leave, so they could be up for their commutes the next morning, Yixing’s cheeks were very pink. Baekhyun forgot that they did that. He wondered when Yixing would come up with some excuse to get out of there.

Instead they ordered drink after drink until Baekhyun was worried that they would get kicked out. They didn’t get kicked up, but wandered over to the nearest IHOP to sober up. They both ordered too many pancakes and ate too much of each other’s food.

“Want to get out of here?” Baekhyun asked at last, and he wasn’t sure if it was the cocktails or the blueberry syrup speaking.

Yixing agreed, and they called an Uber back to Yixing’s place since it was closer.

Yixing’s hands were all over him as soon as they were out of the car, and Baekhyun had to fish the keys out of Yixing’s back pocket so he could unlock the door and let them in. They made it as far as the upstairs hallway, where there was a small couch overlooking the foyer, before they decided that making out now was more important than being on a bed later.

“So many fucking clothes,” Baekhyun huffed as Yixing sucked marks onto his neck. His fingers fumbled with the zipper on Yixing’s jeans so he could get that heavy cock in his hands.

As soon as they were both naked Yixing was pressing him into the couch, his dick sliding over the seam of Baekhyun’s ass. Baekhyun rutted upwards a few times to try and get some friction, but was soon distracted by Yixing’s lips.

“The blueberry syrup is the fucking best,” Yixing mumbled after a few minutes, licking his lips, and Baekhyun laughed.

“Stop getting distracted and fuck me,” he complained.

Yixing rolled his eyes and grabbed Baekhyun’s hand. “I suppose we should at least make it to the bedroom.”

Yixing’s bedroom was messy, although not as messy as Baekhyun’s. There were about five of the same shirt strewn over the floor, and the dresser was overflowing with random stuff, from guitar picks to bottles of cologne to empty packs of gum. Yixing paused at the dresser, playfully shoving Baekhyun towards the bed, to rummage in the drawer, knocking a few guitar picks onto the floor in the process.

By the time Yixing finally extracted the condom and lube Baekhyun still couldn’t decide how he wanted it. There were simply too many options, and he wanted Yixing in all of them.

Thankfully, Yixing decided for him. “I want you on your back, feet over your head.”

Baekhyun thought that Yixing’s opinion of his flexibility was a bit too high, but with Yixing crawling over towards him, tossing the condom to the side as he poured the lube on his fingers and warmed it up, he thought he could manage just fine.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Yixing was in a teasing mood, because he grinned as he pushed Baekhyun’s legs even further back, spreading his ass apart and smiling like he’d just remembered about a stash of Bitcoin he’d bought on a whim back in 2012. He ran his finger across Baekhyun’s hole, teasing flicks that each sent a little packet of pleasure to his dick, and sucked a trail of love bites, more bite than kiss, into his inner thigh, until Baekhyun was squirming and whining.

“I’m going to get a cramp,” he complained, and Yixing laughed, finally letting his finger slide inside and letting Baekhyun’s legs come down to rest on his shoulders. 

The teasing didn’t stop there, though, because Yixing bent down with a terrifyingly smug grin and sucked the tip of Baekhyun’s cock into his mouth, delicious warm heat that had Baekhyun bucking up involuntarily. Yixing bobbed his head up and down, slipping another finger inside, and Baekhyun sank his fingernails into Yixing’s back, his back arching away from the bed.

“Fuck,” he gasped. “This is so unfair, I didn’t do this to--”

He was cut off by Yixing’s finger brushing against his prostate, and a breathless moan escaped from his throat instead. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to hold on to himself because he didn’t want to come before he had a chance to feel Yixing inside of him.

When Yixing finally stopped with the teasing, with the keeping Baekhyun just on the edge, Baekhyun couldn’t help the eager words that spilled out. “Yixing I need you now, hurry.”

Yixing smiled and leaned up for a lingering kiss. “I couldn’t help myself. You tasted so good.”

But when he pulled away he finally rolled the condom on, spreading some more lube on it as Baekhyun licked his lips in anticipation. Yixing dragged the tip over Baekhyun’s ass crack a couple of times, spreading the lube around and maddeningly never pushing inside. Baekhyun was about to open his mouth to complain again, but then the tip of Yixing’s cock finally breached the ring of muscle around Baekhyun’s hole, pulling another moan from Baekhyun’s mouth instead. He demanded another kiss as he adjusted, and Yixing complied.

“Move,” Baekhyun said after a moment, surprised by how different he sounded, all high-pitched and blissed out.

“You feel perfect,” Yixing groaned as he started thrusting in and out shallowly. Baekhyun didn’t mind because he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to hold out if Yixing fucked him hard.

He continued like that for a few minutes, more of a grind than anything. Baekhyun rolled his hips back and just enjoyed the way Yixing’s warmth spread over him from the inside out.

Then he adjusted his position, getting closer to the headboard, so his angle was more downward, and Baekhyun let his appreciation out, loudly.

“That’s so good, Yixing, just like that!”

Yixing gave him a little smirk. “You like that?”

Baekhyun whined and agreed that yes, yes he fucking loved it when Yixing fucked him just right. And from this angle he could do nothing but take everything that Yixing wanted to give.

After a few more minutes Yixing tired of the position. “Want to flip over?”

“Yeah,” he said, and groaned when he felt Yixing sliding out, felt his hole clenching around nothing.

He flipped over onto his belly, clutching one of Yixing’s pillows and wiggling his ass in the air. He heard Yixing laugh and place a few open-mouthed kisses onto his back before lining up and sliding in again. 

And if the other angle was good this one was perfect, because Baekhyun could meet Yixing’s thrusts and rut against the bed and he could feel himself getting close.

“Fuck, Baekhyun,” Yixing said, his voice low and dark in a way that made Baekhyun want to worship him.

“I’m gonna come,” Baekhyun said. His voice was high and desperate.

“Come for me, baby.”

Baekhyun let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding as he came, letting Yixing continue to plow into his sensitive body. A few moments later Yixing was pulling out and finishing onto Baekhyun’s ass. Baekhyun felt a finger trace through the warm fluid, pushing into the soft flesh of his ass.

“Looks good?” he asked breathlessly.

“So good that I want a picture of it framed on my wall,” Yixing said as he leaned down, turned Baekhyun’s face toward him with one finger. His eyes were dark as he leaned in for a kiss.

Baekhyun relaxed into the kiss, slow, languid, and soft. When Yixing pulled away he pouted.

“We need to clean up,” Yixing said.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes at how responsible he was being but followed Yixing to the bathroom for a quick rinse. They played summery music from Yixing’s waterproof speaker and sucked the warm water from each other’s skin, their bodies starting to flush red from the heat of the water and of each other.

Once they’d brushed their teeth and emerged back into the bedroom, Yixing rummaged through his closet and tossed some clean clothes at Baekhyun without even asking if he was staying over. Baekhyun smiled as he stepped into the pajamas that smelled like Yixing.

He helped Yixing change the sheets and then clambered into bed after him, grabbing onto one of Yixing’s arms and playfully refusing to let go. Yixing rolled his eyes but there was a smile on his face.

It didn’t take long for Yixing to drift off, but Baekhyun’s head was still full of a vortex of thoughts. He absentmindedly rubbed the smooth skin of Yixing’s arm, watching the shadows of the room turn slowly to planes and vertices as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

And as he listened to Yixing’s breathing even out, he turned his gaze to the window, where he could see the clouds drifting over the face of the moon. He hoped that this wouldn’t become a routine. They were going to start recording Death by Unicorn’s new album next month, and if it became a routine, he didn’t know if he could ever stop.

  
  
  


_I've wasted time, I've wasted breath_

_I think I've thought myself to death_

“Come With Me Now” - Kongos

  
  
  


Baekhyun doesn’t really remember how it happened. Yixing came over for some reason or another, maybe to play videogames or watch a movie or something else equally mundane. Baekhyun’s apartment was small back then; the only place to sit was the couch, so they were both squished onto it, speakers on full blast.

Somehow Baekhyun ended up on the bottom. Yixing’s head was warm on his chest.

“What about this one?” Yixing asked as the song changed.

Baekhyun bobbed his head along to the music for a few moments, then made a noise of agreement. “It’s good. Reminds me of my angsty teen days.”

Yixing laughed. “You’re still angsty though.”

Baekhyun curled his hand into Yixing’ hair and watched the strands fall through his fingers like water. “Never said I wasn’t angsty. I’m just not a teen anymore, unfortunately.”

Yixing’s hand brushed against Baekhyun’s hip as he adjusted his position. Baekhyun bit his lip and tried to concentrate on the song.

“Working on anything else good these days?” Baekhyun asked.

When Yixing hummed Baekhyun could feel the vibrations on his chest.

“Just a song here and there. Nothing major. What about you guys?”

“Rehearsals for the tour,” Baekhyun replied. “You should come.”

Yixing paused, his finger still scrolling through songs absentmindedly. “I’ll try.”

“What, you have someplace better to be?” Baekhyun teased.

Yixing laughed, shifting his position so he was looking Baekhyun in the eye. His cheeks dimpled, his lips plush and pink around his words. “Course not.”

“Good,” Baekhyun breathed, and that’s when he felt it, the perfect moment. He was about ready to close his eyes and let Yixing kiss him, but it never came.

He watched as Yixing swallowed and slumped back onto the couch, his eyes going back to his phone. Baekhyun stared at the ceiling and tried to squash the feeling of confusion and, even more strangely, disappointment.

  
  
  


_And all the things that you never ever told me_

_And all the smiles that are ever ever_

_Ever_

“Ghost of You” - My Chemical Romance

  
  
  


It did become a routine. Baekhyun was lazily flipping through Netflix one afternoon when his phone buzzed with a notification from Yixing.

_when are you free?_

Baekhyun glanced at the picture on his phone and stifled a moan. Yixing’s cock was hard against his belly and glistening with precome.

_mine or yours?_ he texted back in a hurry.

_are you home? i can be there in 5_

Baekhyun responded with a thumbs-up and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, then sat next to the second-floor window where he could see the driveway.

Yixing’s BMW pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, and Baekhyun leapt from his seat to get the front door.

“Missed me?” Yixing asked with a smirk once the door swung open, and he was kissing Baekhyun, slamming the door shut behind them with a foot, pushing him onto the polished wood of his expensive dining room table.

Baekhyun moaned when he felt how hard Yixing was against his leg, rutting against it involuntarily.

“I was thinking about you,” Yixing murmured in Baekhyun’s ear as Baekhyun sucked marks onto the smooth skin over his collar bones.

“When?” Baekhyun gasped as Yixing nibbled on his earlobe.

“While I was sitting in on an exec meeting,” Yixing replied. “I got hard under the table and had to use my laptop to hide it.”

“Fuck.” Baekhyun wanted his mouth on Yixing’s dick. He whined and pulled on Yixing’s shirt. “I don’t like this.”

“Why are you always complaining about my clothes?” Yixing laughed as he pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it behind him.

“They’re so inconvenient,” Baekhyun huffed as he struggled to free Yixing’s dick from his terrible work slacks.

He couldn’t wait for Yixing to take his pants off; he pulled Yixing’s cock out and immediately sucked it into his mouth, moaning at the now-familiar taste. He bobbed up and down a few times, getting it nice and wet. It was so hot and heavy on his tongue, and his knees ached where they pressed into the hard marble floor.

“Slut,” Yixing said as he buried a hand in Baekhyun’s hair.

Baekhyun winked, but his cheekiness was gone as soon as Yixing started thrusting into his mouth shallowly, causing the corners of his mouth to burn and his eyes to well up with tears. He gripped onto the backs of Yixing’s pants and moaned, low in his throat.

“I missed this,” Yixing said, his voice slightly choked, and Baekhyun agreed.

It took only a few more thrusts before Yixing pulled out and finished onto Baekhyun’s face. Baekhyun cleaned him off with his tongue and tucked him back into his pants. There was something about fucking while Yixing was still dressed like that that was so irresistible.

Yixing pressed the palm of his hand into Baekhyun’s crotch, eliciting a choked moan. “Want to fuck me upstairs?”

Baekhyun hooked a finger through one of the loops of his pants and dragged him upstairs. He managed to only trip once.

  
  
  


_I'm such a sinner_

_Yeah have been since birth_

_Have an adrenal full of lust_

_But I could be so much worse_

“Thank God I’m Not You” - Himalayas

  
  
  


“Are you okay?” Yixing’s face looked very bright and very concerned after the strobing blackness of the club.

Baekhyun nodded and climbed into the car. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but its worn interior reminded him of all the late night fast food runs they’d done. It was comforting.

“Thanks for coming to get me. I figured since I’m on the way back for you…”

“No problem.” Yixing reached over and buckled Baekhyun’s seat belt for him before pulling back onto the street.

The car was so comfortable and quiet, especially after that night. Baekhyun closed his eyes and let Yixing’s soft voice slowly clear away the EDM beats still pulsing in his brain. He was about to nod off when he realized that Yixing was probably asking him something.

“What did you say?”

“Do you want me to stay with you tonight? You look a bit out of it.”

Baekhyun laughed, delirious and loud. “I’m fine. I got used to this a long time ago.”

He watched the buildings flying by outside, avoiding eye contact. Yixing didn’t say anything, but Baekhyun could feel his uneasiness, like he’d been feeding a wild animal and wasn’t sure if it trusted him yet. Strangely, it didn’t piss Baekhyun off like it did with other people.

He sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back against the headrest. “But I’d like it if you stayed with me.”

  
  
  


_I wanna heal, I wanna feel_

_What I thought was never real_

“Somewhere I Belong” - Linkin Park

  
  
  


“You ready to head out?”

Baekhyun was startled from his thoughts by Yixing’s voice. He hadn’t realized that Yixing had come back from the bathroom. They had just finished the first day of recording for the new album, and everyone else had already left. It’d been weird; he liked the music, and he knew it was good, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, and that the something wrong was probably himself.

He frowned and tried to pick up the thread of the melody he’d been trying to remember. When he was unsuccessful, he strummed a few chords on the guitar and hummed a little bit of the song they had worked on that day.

“I was trying to remember something,” he said. “Maybe an old song from when I was learning how to play?”

Yixing sat down on the couch next to him, perhaps sensing that this wouldn’t be quick.

“I haven’t played in years,” Yixing said conversationally. “It’s been a lot of work, more than I expected, being on the other side of it all.”

Baekhyun handed him the guitar. “You shouldn’t get out of practice, Mr. CEO.”

Yixing laughed and picked up a guitar pick from the table. “That’s Mr. Soon-to-Be CEO to you.”

He took a few moments working over some fingerings, and then he started playing a familiar melody. It was an old Death by Unicorn song. They’d never done an acoustic version before. Baekhyun sang Jongdae’s part as Yixing bobbed his head along to the music.

“Hey!” Baekhyun said when he realized that the guitar had diverged from the song that he remembered.

“I’m experimenting,” Yixing said, accidentally strumming the wrong chord. He winced and glanced at the guitar to find the right fingering again. Finally he switched to another key and began playing. Baekhyun could tell where he was going and hummed along.

They played for a few more moments before Yixing paused to jot down some notes on the stack of score sheets on the table next to him. Then he picked up the guitar and started playing again.

They went through a few more iterations of the melody before the janitor came and kicked them out.

“Thai food tonight?” Baekhyun asked as they got into Yixing’s car. He was scrolling through Grubhub on his phone, weighing how hungry he was.

“Sure.” Yixing started the engine and as they pulled out of the parking lot Baekhyun ordered yellow curry for himself and drunken noodles for Yixing.

  
  
  


_You don't have to ask_

_You know I have it_

_No, you don't have to ask_

_I goddamn have it_

“Stone Cold Classic” - AKA George

  
  
  


“Great show. Better than the first show, even.”

Baekhyun smiled when he saw Yixing at the door of the dressing room. “Glad you could make it.”

It certainly felt different than their first show, when they’d shared the dressing room with one of the opening acts, and the crowd could only remember one line in the chorus.

Baekhyun finished pulling his sweatshirt over his head and sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to him. “How have you been?”

“I finished _Hunter x Hunter_ without you,” Yixing replied, his voice teasing. “I had too much time on my hands without you bothering me.”

Baekhyun feigned outrage, but he was too happy to see Yixing to keep it up for long. He was eager to know his opinion of some of their newer sets, which they’d slowly been perfecting over the course of the tour route.

“Favorite set?” he asked to start. “Of the new songs.”

“‘Swallow the Stars’,” Yixing answered immediately. “I like the lyrics and it’s at a good point in the set list.”

Baekhyun was surprised; it was one of their less popular songs, and he’d actually struggled a lot with the lyrics for it. The result was a song that was thematically very different from their other devil-may-care, nobody-understands-me songs.

“You never told me it was your favorite,” he accused. He remembered it being an easy one to record, but he didn’t think Yixing said anything special about it.

Yixing shrugged. “It never came up. Besides, it feels different when you hear it in concert.”

Baekhyun realized that he agreed. They talked for a few more minutes before the rest of the band came through and they all headed out to dinner. Baekhyun and Yixing stayed at the bar for drinks, talking until they got kicked out. It felt like Yixing had been on tour with them the entire time.

  
  
  


_You want to be the one in control_

_You want to be the one who's alive_

_You want to be the one who gets sold_

_It's not a matter of luck, it's just a matter of time_

“Edge of the Earth” - 30 Seconds to Mars

  
  
  


Baekhyun was sitting in his car and wondering who would inflict a hell like Los Angeles upon the good Christian world when he got a Messenger call from Yixing.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” Yixing was in his office, his white collared shirt open at the top to reveal the creamy skin of his collar bones. “I have some more ideas for the bridge. I’ll show them to you tonight.”

Baekhyun smiled. Working on their little song together had been one of those little islands of goodness in a vast sea of the confused weariness that had been building and building ever since they started working on the new album. Sometimes he hummed their song to himself while he was walking, or showering, or wondering if anyone would notice if one day he just walked out of the city and never came back.

Baekhyun had switched it up this time, helping out with the music while Yixing helped with the lyrics. Except it wasn’t like when he wrote a song with Chanyeol, when he was just trying to match the moving target of Chanyeol’s music with his lyrics. This time, every new verse was built on top of and interwoven with the melody they had come up with the previous day. Baekhyun was convinced that they had somehow come up with enough material for four or five songs, if they took the time to streamline things. He had forgotten what it was like to have inspiration oozing out of his pores. It bled into their work with Death by Unicorn’s new album during the daytime, but Baekhyun wasn’t sure if the others had noticed.

“Looking forward to it.”

“What are you feeling like for dinner?” Yixing asked. “I’ll stop by the supermarket.”

Baekhyun drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “You offering to cook?”

Yixing’s laugh was distorted through the Internet, but still comforting. “Yes. I was feeling domestic today.”

“In that case, make me that risotto again?”

“Your wish is my command. I’ll see you at home.”

Baekhyun winced. “Wait, mine or yours?”

Yixing laughed nervously. “Sorry, I meant mine. I’ll let you drive.”

“No, don’t hang up. I’m just sitting in traffic anyway. How did that meeting go?”

Yixing made a noncommittal noise. “Don’t really know what I was expecting out of it. We kind of just said what we already knew, while being in the same room.”

“I don’t envy you. I thought being a CEO was just bossing people around and shit.”

“If it was, everyone would be one. And besides, I’m just an intern right now. It’ll be official once we finish this album.”

Baekhyun hummed and stepped on the gas. Traffic was finally clearing up. “I’ll let you handle the business side, tiger.”

Yixing groaned. “You sound like the old man.”

Baekhyun shuddered. “I’ll forgive you because you’re pretty. I’m getting on the highway again, so I’ll see you at home.”

“See you.”

It was only when Baekhyun was following the signs for Yixing’s exit that he realized he’d also used the _h_ word.

  
  
  


_I know Tony Soprano's bad company_

_But like me, he's got the world by his feet_

_(He knows what I mean)_

“Va Fangool!” - Nephew

  
  
  


Kyungsoo threw a housewarming party at the end of that summer, after their short but very lucrative tour promoting Death by Unicorn’s second album. He hired a good bartender, and everyone’s lips were well lubricated that night. Baekhyun knew the danger of that, and was hiding on the deck with Yixing blowing smoke rings.

“You ever have that sick urge to just destroy everything?” he asked. “You know, that full out driving into oncoming traffic, setting fire to a library, pissing on the toilet paper display at Walmart feeling?”

Yixing laughed. “You’re gone, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun shrugged.

“It’s more of a sell all my stuff and move into a van roaming the mountains of Canada kind of thing for me, though,” Yixing replied after a pause. “A throw my phone into the ocean and spit onto my parents’ faces kind of feeling.”

It was Baekhyun’s turn to laugh. He loved that feeling of delirious sanity. It was much better than the confused deadness he felt most of the time.

They smoked a bit more and watched the stragglers get out of the pool, the waves in the water eventually subsiding so its surface was perfectly still, trembling against the slight breeze.

Someone stuck her head out of the door. “Yixing, we’re heading out now.”

Yixing nodded and clasped Baekhyun’s forearm as a good-bye. Baekhyun finished his smoke and went inside looking for a drink. He found Chanyeol and Jongdae eating ice cream in the living room, watching old ATLA episodes. He went to go pick up some mint chip from the fridge and plopped down on the couch next to them, slinging his legs over Jongdae’s lap.

“Nice of you to join us,” Chanyeol teased.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and sucked on his spoonful of ice cream. It was one of his favorite episodes, the beach episode.

“Honored that you would join us and not leave with your new boy toy,” Jongdae said with a wink.

Baekhyun didn’t deign to honor the comment with a response. They would drop it if he ignored them for long enough.

Indeed, they were able to watch in peace until Zuko stormed out of the party, at which point Jongdae chimed in with a, “I’m curious though. Why haven’t you fucked him yet? You actually like him enough to keep him around?”

Baekhyun laughed. “You make it sound like I can’t be friends with people I’ve fucked.”

He threw in a flirty wink for good measure, and that shut Jongdae up real quick.

They finished the rest of the episode and went to go bum a ride off of one of the few sober people remaining.

Baekhyun was silent for the entire ride back to his house. Jongdae’s words kept ringing in his ears. He had only meant it as a joke, but Baekhyun couldn’t get it out of his head.

  
  
  


_Come on, and show them your love_

_Rip out the wings of a butterfly_

_For your soul, my love_

“Wings of a Butterfly” - HIM

  
  
  


“Congratulations,” Baekhyun whispered into Yixing’s ear, reaching around with his hand not holding a drink to pat Yixing’s shoulder, “Mr. CEO.”

“I’ll leave you two be,” Minseok said with a roll of the eyes, and Baekhyun smirked over Yixing’s shoulder.

“Not in front of my colleagues, honey,” Yixing replied. He grabbed Baekhyun’s hand and rubbed his thumb over the skin on the back of it.

The company had rented out a club for the occasion. Some rookies were playing on the second floor, but the third one was peaceful. That was where all the food was. Plus the open bar, which Baekhyun had been thoroughly taking advantage of.

“Does your ass still hurt?” Yixing said lowly once Minseok is completely out of earshot. Baekhyun felt the arousal curl in his belly, creeping its way across his inner thighs and towards his very sore ass.

“Yes,” he replied with a smirk. “You like that, don’t you?”

Yixing didn’t confirm or deny it, only reached over and gave his ass the most surreptitious little squeeze before they were engulfed by a larger group of people wanting to congratulate Yixing.

Baekhyun felt out of his element, so he nodded and watched Yixing being so utterly smooth and intelligent, and wondered just how strange they looked together from the outside.

“Are you looking forward to your trip?” one of the execs asked, and Baekhyun blinked because he hadn’t heard anything about a trip.

“I’ve never been to Japan,” Yixing replied. “It should be fun.”

He smiled, easy and beautiful, and utterly oblivious of Baekhyun’s furrowed brow.

Baekhyun listened to the conversation for a few more minutes before excusing himself to get another drink. He suddenly felt sidelined, but more than that he felt confused at why he cared.

  
  
  


_Now every night inside my head_

_You dance around like a silhouette_

_I think I'm hooked so reel me in_

_And let the games begin_

“Be Your Drug” - Circa Waves

  
  
  


They were watching a movie that night. They had been working their way through all of Christopher Nolan’s films, and had made it to the last Batman movie. There was a slice of pepperoni pizza left in the box on Yixing’s coffee table, and all the lights were out in the apartment.

Baekhyun stretched out fully on the couch, letting all the residual tension from the movie drain from his body.

“I need a massage,” he groaned. “Movies stress me out too much.”

“I also get too into movies,” Yixing said, shifting on the couch. Baekhyun felt Yixing adjust his position so he was straddling him.

“That’s good.” Baekhyun hummed in appreciation as he felt Yixing’s thumbs dig into one of the biggest knots in his back.

“Your back is a mess,” Yixing grunted, pushing with what felt like all his weight into the knot. Baekhyun couldn’t help the little whimper that escaped his lips.

Yixing eventually stopped worrying the knot and moved on to Baekhyun’s lower back, using the heels of his palm to press on both sides of Baekhyun’s spine. Baekhyun’s eyes gradually drifted shut and he let the warmth of Yixing’s hands soak into his muscles, his gentle voice filter into his blood. He could feel himself drooling a little.

“Thanks,” he said, flipping onto his back, after a sufficient amount of time had passed to make him feel guilty. “I’ll get you next time. Wouldn’t want to undo your hard work.”

A dimple appeared on Yixing’s cheek. “Sure.”

“Your hair’s getting so long,” Baekhyun said softly as he reached up to brush it out of Yixing’s eyes. He felt his breath catch in his throat at the look in Yixing’s eyes.

He could feel what was happening before it happened, before he felt Yixing’s lips on his own, Yixing’s hand reaching down and cupping the back of his neck, Yixing’s legs warm against his.

“Is this okay?” he heard Yixing ask.

“Yes,” Baekhyun breathed.

Somehow they managed to make it onto Yixing’s bed, Yixing pressing soft kisses into Baekhyun’s collar bones as he stretched him open excruciatingly slow.

When it was over, Yixing’s head nestled into the crook of Baekhyun’s arm and the windows ever so slightly fogged over, Baekhyun stared at the blades of Yixing’s ceiling fan and wondered what he’d just done.

He waited until Yixing had turned over to sleep on his side, then quietly got dressed and let himself out. When he got home, he stood under the shower head until his eyes started drooping from exhaustion, but he still felt dirty.

  
  
  


_I see the blood all over your hands_

_Does it make you feel more like a man?_

“Always” - Saliva

  
  
  


Baekhyun missed him more than he expected. Thankfully, Chanyeol was free for the weekend, and Baekhyun invited himself over for a spontaneous movie night. Tarantino was distracting, but not distracting enough. His thoughts began to wander, and by the time the credits were rolling and the beer had settled into his stomach he was feeling very talkative.

“I cheated on you,” he said.

Chanyeol snorted. “Sorry to break it to you man, but I’ve been letting other people wear my snapbacks too.”

Baekhyun groaned loudly and sidled over to the edge of the couch to pick up Chanyeol’s guitar. “Stupid. I wrote a song without you.”

Chanyeol was completely silent. Baekhyun heard the TV switch off in the background; he was staring at the guitar strings.

“But who wrote the music?” he asked.

Baekhyun shrugged and strummed a few chords. “We both kind of did. Me and Yixing.”

“You wrote a song together?” Chanyeol sounded incredulous.

Baekhyun sighed, refusing to lift his eyes from the guitar. “Yes.”

“Why does it feel like I’m being cheated on?”

Baekhyun smiled. He could feel Chanyeol pacing around the room.

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s acoustic,” Baekhyun offered.

Chanyeol groaned loudly. “That’s worse! I didn’t know you were in this deep, man. You should’ve told me something.”

“Well I didn’t fucking know myself, did I?” Baekhyun retorted. He paused. “Sorry. I’m still confused about it. I’m still figuring it out on my own.”

Chanyeol sighed. “Well, let’s hear it.”

Baekhyun took a deep breath and found the starting position on the guitar, tapping his foot to count himself in. As he played Yixing’s part, he sang his own part, and found his mind going tranquilly blank. But it wasn’t really blank, more like filled with feelings rather than thoughts. Thoughts were so clunky and unexpressive, but feelings were raw, perfect, and filled the space of his mind like a delicate perfume. He felt warm, and comfortable. He felt all the jam sessions he had with Yixing as the sun set over the Pacific. He felt all the Saturday mornings he woke up to make pancakes while Yixing was still snoring in bed. He felt so unlike himself, but strangely, it didn’t scare him.

When he had finished playing, Chanyeol’s mouth was gaping open unattractively.

“It sounds better when Yixing plays it,” Baekhyun said sheepishly.

Chanyeol threw a cushion at him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in love? You’re in love, you fucking idiot!”

…

Baekhyun couldn’t sleep that night. He drove down to the beach and let the waves ruin his Nikes for a while, then got too cold and went back to the car. He played old music and smoked and wondered what the fuck he was doing. He didn’t know for how long he stared at the land’s end before another car pulled up and cut its engine. When no one came out and loud music started playing, Baekhyun took it as his cue to leave.

He drove without purpose, or so he thought, until he pulled up at Yixing’s house. He debated leaving, but the manic clarity of 4AM kept him going. He got out of the car and rang the doorbell, feeling like he was back in middle school and hoping his best friend would answer instead of one of her parents.

“Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun was surprised to see that Yixing hadn’t been sleeping. He had just taken a shower, towel still slung low over his hips.

“I didn’t think you’d be awake,” Baekhyun said dumbly.

“Just got back from Japan,” Yixing said. “Jetlagged.”

Baekhyun opened his mouth. He had always been the kind to say things plainly, without embarrassment, but now he found it frustratingly difficult. He supposed that before he never had this much to lose.

“Can I come in?”

Yixing looked like he was about to make an excuse, but as Baekhyun watched his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed and then he opened the door.

“Let me go put on some clothes.”

Baekhyun waited awkwardly in the living room, on the same couch in whose cushions he had only last week been face down and getting fucked doggy style.

“Want anything to drink?” Yixing asked when he came back downstairs, appearing in the kitchen.

“Just water.”

Yixing set down a glass of water on a coaster in front of Baekhyun. It was an old Death by Unicorn coaster from their last tour. He sat down on the armchair across from Baekhyun and brought his beer to his lips.

Baekhyun drank his water but his throat still felt dry. He crossed and un-crossed his legs.

“How was your trip?”

Yixing cleared his throat. “It went well enough. You know, no delays or anything, which is always nice.”

Baekhyun nodded, tried and failed to come up with more ways to stall the time.

“I’m in love with you. Just thought you should know.”

It took a long time for Yixing to put down his beer bottle. “I know.”

Baekhyun got up and started heading for the door, ignoring Yixing calling after him. As soon as he pulled onto the highway he regretted it. As soon as he pulled into his driveway he started crying. He fell asleep on the living room couch that night.

...

Baekhyun sometimes wondered if his existence was a simulation created by some higher being for their cheap entertainment. Sometimes the irony was too perfect, the circumstances too contrived, for his life to not have been orchestrated by an unseen hand.

Yixing stopped picking up his calls. He was always away on some business trip or the other, and even on the few occasions when he was supposed to be back in town, his office was empty, his secretary claiming some kind of important meeting. Baekhyun scribbled lyrics in a drunken stupor at 3AM and woke up hungover in the afternoon to cross them out. Chanyeol learned his mother’s kimchi jigae recipe and brought him some every weekend because Baekhyun craved human contact but couldn’t bear to ask any of his other friends.

He missed his old self.

…

“Baekhyun? What are you doing here?”

It was an LA kind of winter, and Baekhyun was only dressed in a hoodie and jeans, leaning against Yixing’s car. He shrugged and kicked his foot against the ground. The parking garage was mostly empty; he’d waited a long time for Yixing to finally get out of work.

“You haven’t been easy to get a hold of.”

He heard a beep as Yixing unlocked the car, put his stuff in the trunk, and walked over to where Baekhyun was standing. “Why are you here?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and turned around to get into the passenger’s seat. “Just drive.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yixing frown, but then he walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. Baekhyun could smell his cologne. He buckled himself in and began to pull out of the garage, nodding at the security guard on their way out.

The sky was gray that day, the cold hard gray that made you think about how lonely people were, walking through life with their heads against the wind, praying that they would soon make it to somewhere warmer. Yixing took a right turn out of the garage and started driving towards the center of downtown. His Spotify turned on from the last time he was in the car; it was a philosophy podcast.

They drove for about ten minutes before Yixing turned it off. “So are you going to tell me what you’re here for?”

“Why have you been ignoring me?” Baekhyun asked. 

Yixing laughed derisively. “I haven’t been ignoring you.”

“Really? Then why is today the first time I’ve seen you in a month?”

Yixing took his eyes away from the road to look at Baekhyun’s face; it must’ve looked scary, because he sighed and turned back to the road. “I was ignoring you at first. I was pissed at you, for telling me that you were in love with me and then not giving me a chance to say it back to you.”

Baekhyun inhaled sharply. He watched Yixing swallow and turn onto a street seemingly at random.

“But then I changed my mind,” Yixing said. “I was going to call you, but then I had work stuff to do, and by the time that was all over so much time had passed that I just chickened out. I was just going to accept that I’d lost you again.”

“What?” Baekhyun realized he was shouting and lowered his volume. “How could you do that?”

Yixing pulled over on the side of the street and cut the engine. “I didn’t think I could do anything about it. I was surprised when you came back to me. I didn’t know why you would want to. I thought it was over between us, that it’d been over for a long time.”

“Are you telling me there was nothing there?” Baekhyun asked. “You let me come back to you, you welcomed me back!”

“Of course there was something there!” Yixing ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel. “There still is. Calling it love feels wrong because it’s not like the fucking movies, I mean when is it ever, but I can’t stop myself from coming back to you.”

“You make me sound like some kind of drug,” Baekhyun joked. He was surprised to hear the waver in his own voice.

Yixing laughed. “You are a drug.”

Baekhyun didn’t know what to respond to that. He stared at his fingers and resisted the urge to crack his knuckles.

“When I first met you,” Yixing said. “God, when I first met you, it looked like you had a spotlight on you, all the time. I thought you could walk on water or something. You just looked so perfectly indifferent, so ready to take on the world. I wished I could’ve had that confidence. I wanted to be you, I wanted to be _with_ you. And when you started noticing me, my heart felt like it was going to fucking jump out of my chest and into your arms.”

“And I took advantage of you.” 

Yixing chuckled. “I wouldn’t go that far. We were both young, and at least I was stupid. I didn’t know how to love anything besides myself.”

“But I hurt you,” Baekhyun said, his heart pounding in his throat.

Yixing shrugged. “We all get hurt sometime.”

Baekhyun felt traitorous tears coming to his eyes. “I want you.”

Yixing shook his head. “I don’t know if you know what you want, Baekhyun. You’re still the same person you were five years ago, and I’m not.”

That stung.

Baekhyun watched a dog passing by on the street outside. It stopped to sniff curiously at a few storefronts before its owner tugged it away with some effort.

“Maybe this tour will be good for the both of us,” Yixing said after a while. “I think we could both use some space.”

Baekhyun took a deep, steadying breath, feeling the hot tears on his face drying into cool tracks. “You never said. Do you still want me?”

When he turned to look at Yixing, his eyes were soft. He reached out for Baekhyun’s face, his thumb wiping the moisture on his cheeks away. “I’ve always wanted you, Baekhyun.”

…

“What’s with the hair?” Minseok asked when Baekhyun showed up at the airport.

Baekhyun had dyed it silver last night. When he had checked his reflection in the mirror that morning, even he had done a double take.

“Wanted to try something new,” he replied, shrugging. “You like it?”

Minseok snorted. “The girls will love it, trust me.”

“Good enough for me.” Baekhyun grabbed a beer and went to join the others in the VIP section.

The others were talking about some stunt Chanyeol wanted to pull.

“As the person who would have to be swinging on the tire and then flung into the audience,” Jongdae frowned, “I refuse.”

“I volunteer as tribute,” Baekhyun announced as he entered, and everyone ignored him except for Chanyeol, who was quickly thinking of a way to spin Baekhyun’s entrance to his advantage.

“Maybe we can switch parts during some of the older songs,” Chanyeol said. “I at least know all of the lyrics in _White Horny Beast_.”

“And who exactly is going to play the drum part?” Kyungsoo asked, and Chanyeol deflated slightly.

They hung out for another half hour before it was time to board the plane. Baekhyun was sitting next to Kyungsoo.

“I like your hair,” Kyungsoo said as the plane was taking off.

When Baekhyun looked over, he was absentmindedly flipping through the plane magazine, and Baekhyun’s mouth gaped open.

“Did you just compliment me?”

The corner of Kyungsoo’s mouth tugged up ever so slightly. “And here I thought you were finally growing up, Baekhyun, but you’re still the same old annoying you.”

Baekhyun swatted Kyungsoo on the arm with the back of his hand and turned away towards the window, pulling his eye mask over his eyes. He would have plenty of opportunities to deal with Kyungsoo’s sass later.

But he did feel different about this tour. Maybe he really was different, despite what Yixing had said.

…

“If you keep disappointing your groupies soon you won’t have any left,” Jongdae observed as he spotted Baekhyun sneaking back into the dressing room, furtively glancing behind him for any pursuing footsteps.

“Not so loudly,” Baekhyun whispered. “They have very good hearing.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes. “Stop being a bitch.”

Baekhyun reached down for one of the shoes he’d discarded haphazardly earlier in the night to throw at Jongdae. He ducked at the perfect moment, to Baekhyun’s annoyance.

Chanyeol took that moment to stumble in, followed by an unimpressed Kyungsoo.

“Great show, guys!” Chanyeol shouted, followed by an uncharacteristic giggle.

“He had one too many edibles,” Kyungsoo said by way of explanation.

Chanyeol shook his head adamantly and came over to hold Baekhyun’s hand. Chanyeol’s hand was a bit sweaty, like the rest of him. “Especially you, Baekhyun. You crushed that solo!”

Baekhyun nodded patiently. “You did pretty good yourself.”

Chanyeol giggled again and folded onto the couch, struggling to free his phone from his pants. “One of the lighting guys sent me a video.” He patted the spot on the couch next to him and Baekhyun plopped down next to him; high Chanyeol was simply too adorable.

The video began shakily as whoever was taking it swung the camera around to focus on the stage. It was taken from quite close to the stage, but a big portion of the crowd was still visible in the frame. The audio was surprisingly good, and he recognized the opening beat of one of their oldest and most popular songs. Baekhyun wasn’t particularly proud of “Tyranny of Eyes”; it was angsty in that presumptuous way that was so trendy back then, but now just came across as bitchy. 

But they’d actually been going with Chanyeol’s weird suggestion that they switch parts for some of the songs. The fans seemed to like it, and it was fun to change things up every once in a while, so Baekhyun was singing Jongdae’s part in all of the choruses for “Tyranny of Eyes”. He remembered that he’d randomly decided to change some of the lines for this show. The others had noticed, but only Jongdae said anything about it, telling him that they should do a re-release with the new lyrics and a more modern background track. 

_You’re a tyranny_

_I can’t escape the_

_Tyranny of your eyes_

_I wanna open my eyes_

_For you_

He watched himself step back from the front of stage for Jongdae to sing the last verse before the bridge. A smooth bass line led into the bridge, and he hopped onto the little elevated platform at the side of the stage for his solo, his body completely relaxed and bent slightly backwards as he let the shape of the music carry him. Some of his hair fell into his face, already slick with sweat, and he shook it out of the way, a huge grin on his face. He didn’t remember the last time he’d looked like that. The crowd roared its appreciation.

...

“You’re going to make me blush,” Baekhyun complained, trying to cover his face, when he saw Yixing at the airport. The rest of them were still getting their checked luggage, but Baekhyun had been too lazy and shoved all his stuff on the tour bus at their last stop. He would pick it up some other time.

“Blush,” Yixing said. “I’ll cover your face.”

It was tulips and calla lilies. Baekhyun took the flowers and let Yixing wrap his arms around him, pressing his face against Yixing’s chest and closing his eyes.

“I missed you,” Baekhyun said softly.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that. It’s what you said, isn’t it?”

“Fuck what I said.”

Yixing laughed. “I made a dinner reservation. I hope you don’t mind.”

Baekhyun snuggled in a bit closer. “Thank you. I’m glad we decided to do this the right way. You know, without getting all that other shit wrapped up in it.”

“Me too.”

Baekhyun felt Yixing’s fingers stroking over his arm, near the bend of his elbow, and took one last deep breath of that now-nostalgic scent.

“Let’s get out of here.”

…

As the weeks passed, and they started going grocery shopping together, and Baekhyun asked if Yixing thought he should write a musical and he said yes, and they went to fancy restaurants to use up Yixing’s CEO salary and frowned at the funny names on the menu, and Yixing got a puppy and said it would be their dog, Baekhyun was more and more convinced that he was completely in love with Yixing.

He wondered why all couples didn’t do it this way, first fucking enough to realize that it wasn’t just lust that kept drawing them back to each other, then enjoying the extended honeymoon that came with that realization. Millennials ruining the institution of marriage be damned, he was grateful that he’d fallen in love not with the idea of Yixing but with the person underneath, the only one he could feel comfortable baring his soul to. It felt so fucking good to be able to stop pretending.

“You’re disgusting,” Kyungsoo said, his eyes so big and wide that he looked like a kid that was having fun saying a curse word they heard from Mommy or Daddy, without knowing what it meant. “Who knew that under that rock star was the biggest bubblegum princess of them all?

Baekhyun stuck his tongue out at him. “Jealousy does not become you.”

Kyungsoo laughed, and he looked his age again. “Are you sure about this?”

Baekhyun nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I think Death by Unicorn is just what I needed when I was twenty, but now, it’s not who I want to be anymore. I feel like I’ve been stagnating for a long time, and I’m ready to move on.”

He looked down at his drink, watching the ice cubes slowly melting against each other. He was sad that it was only after meeting Yixing again that he’d realized how lost he’d been for the past four years, but he was grateful too.

“I agree,” Kyungsoo said. “I think it would be good for you. I’ve actually talked about it with Jongdae too.”

Baekhyun blinked a couple times to make sure he’d processed that completely. “You discussed kicking me out?”

Kyungsoo snorted. “No, dumbass. We discussed splitting up the band. I think we all have our own directions that we want to go in, and Death by Unicorn isn’t helping us with that anymore.”

Baekhyun blew some air out through his mouth. “Wow, and here I thought I’d get to say that I dumped you.”

Kyungsoo leaned back in his chair with a smirk. “You know I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Baekhyun sighed. “Well, I guess we’re over then. Thanks for the music.”

“You are really something,” Kyungsoo said, trying to hide his grin behind his hand.

Baekhyun finished the rest of his drink and got up, paying in cash before sliding his wallet back into his pocket. “I’ll see you around then.”

“Where are you going?” Kyungsoo called after him as he made his way to the entrance of the bar.

Baekhyun turned around with a grin. “I have a date!”

…

“How does it look?”

_DEATH BY UNICORN DISBANDS AFTER EIGHT YEARS_

_After eight years, six albums, and seven tours, Death by Unicorn will be disbanding as its members pursue their own solo activities. Their last tour, Down with Pegasus, attracted over a million fans worldwide, spanning five continents._

_Lead singer Kim Jongdae says he plans to pursue a solo music career, exploring genres outside of the band’s usual repertoire. Bassist Do Kyungsoo will expand into directing roles after his acting debut in last year’s indie film_ The Dust of the Earth _. Drummer Park Chanyeol has signed another contract at EXO Records as a music producer. Guitarist Byun Baekhyun, who wrote the band’s music alongside Park, has expressed wishes to branch further into music composition, hinting at a possible forthcoming musical._

_Among the band’s accomplishments..._

Baekhyun tossed the magazine back down on the coffee table. “It looks boring. It feels freeing.”

Yixing laughed and set Baekhyun’s coffee down in front of him. “I guess you’ve evolved.”

Baekhyun leaned back in his chair, stretching. “Now I’ll have so much time to bother you. Look, I’ve already started nesting.”

He gestured around at the kitchen, which he had rearranged last week in a fit of domesticity, inserting an herb garden next to the windowsill and ordering several unnecessary appliances on Amazon.

“How sweet,” Yixing cooed as he dug into his omelette. “Will you have dinner waiting for me too?”

Baekhyun fake gagged. “Don’t even think about it. It’s finally time for me to get _hobbies_!”

Yixing raised an eyebrow. “Is this going to be like that surfing endeavor?”

Baekhyun made a face. “We don’t talk about that. Unless we’re talking about how good I look with beach hair.”

“You did look good.” Yixing licked his lips, and Baekhyun couldn’t resist leaning over for a kiss.

When he pulled away, Yixing followed for a few centimeters for one last peck before Baekhyun sat back down in his own seat.

“I’ll pick you up after work today so we can go to that new wine bar?” Yixing asked.

“Sure, I’ll text you where I am,” Baekhyun said. “I might meet up with the ex-band in the afternoon.”

Yixing nodded and went to go put his dish in the dishwasher. Baekhyun followed, draping himself unnecessarily over Yixing’s back to put his own dish away when he bent over.

Yixing laughed as he skillfully dodged out of the incoming play-wrestling match. “I’m going to get dressed.”

Baekhyun fucked around on his phone for a few minutes before wandering over to the piano, suddenly possessed by a strange urge to play. He’d ditched his old one when they’d finally moved in together; it was old and crappy in a way that was calculated for the perfect aesthetic, but he wouldn’t say it had personality. Now they had a brand new one, and Baekhyun had spent an entire weekend tuning it during one of his obsessive hobbying stints.

The sounds of Mozart’s piano sonata 8 slowly rose throughout the house, and Baekhyun let himself just play, his eyes drifting closed again. He didn’t notice Yixing coming back downstairs until he felt the bench dip next to him, Yixing listening silently as he finished the piece.

“Did I make you late for work?” Baekhyun asked when he was done.

“They’ll get used to it,” Yixing responded, placing a warm good-bye kiss on Baekhyun’s lips before rising from the bench and picking his bag up from the ground. “Because I’m looking forward to a lot more mornings like this.”

Baekhyun smiled. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> The mullet will never die. Hope you enjoyed this product of my quarantine-induced procrastination!


End file.
